


"i love you"

by bryhon



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Explicit Language, First Time, Flashbacks, Fluff and Humor, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, One Shot, Suggestive Themes, Teenage Losers Club (IT), Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25933543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bryhon/pseuds/bryhon
Summary: The first time Richie says "I love you".
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	"i love you"

"A bit to the left, Rich," A teenaged and melodramatic Eddie Kaspbrak whined as Richie Tozier tried applying a bandaid to a cut on Eddie's knee. A cut that seemed to be invisible.

The pant leg to his overalls was rolled up to his thigh, but Richie was having a hard time finding any abrasions. And he had just gotten his vision checked. Still 20/200, like always.

"I don't see anything, Eddie. Are you sure you're not just imagining it?" Richie tried feeling around for any sort of bump that could've surfaced after Eddie crashed his bike, but he couldn't find any sign of injury.

"It's there, Richie. I can _feel_ it. It's like a... _tingling_."

"Well, then how about you put the damn bandage on yourself?" Richie handed Eddie the small plastic strip, which he took gently between two fingers.

Eddie huffed. "Fine, I will." He pushed up his sleeve with his free hand, and in only a few seconds the bandaid was adhered to a spot right above his kneecap. 

He slowly unfurled his pant leg and leaned back on his hands. "Now was that so hard?"

Richie rolled his eyes. "I swear, you've got some sort of fucking x-ray vision if you can see something that minuscule."

Eddie just shrugged his shoulders and pumped his free knee. "I guess it pays to be a hypochondriac."

He looked to Richie with a gleam in his eye. "Oh, and that's also what I heard you say to my mom last night."

"Hey," Richie gasped. "That's my line!" A grin tickled the corners of his lips.

"Yeah, well, I have to get some licks in once in a while."

Eddie shot a meaningful glance at Richie, eyes burning a hole into his heart.

Richie groaned. "Oh, I'll show you licks-"

With a pounce, Richie tackled Eddie on the rock he was perched on, burying his face in his neck and peppering kisses on any available space he could get to. 

"Stop! Richie, th-that tickles!"

Richie broke for a moment to look his boyfriend in the eye, about 2 inches away from his face.

Eddie's eyes were a golden brown. Toasty warm. 

_Safe._

The freckles dotting the bridge of his nose were a constellation, and Richie couldn't count the number of times he'd traced them like they were stars.

Their first night together, he told Eddie that he was scared. He'd never done anything with a boy before.

"Do you want this?" Eddie had asked gently, a whisper that aired between only them.

Richie had no hesitation. "Yes."

"We can take it slow. You don't have to be afraid." 

He kissed Richie's forehead. "I'm right here."

Afterwards, Richie held Eddie in a lazy embrace under the duvet, both on the verge of sleep.

"Eddie," Richie murmured.

Eddie sighed with content. "Yeah, Chee?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For liking me."

Eddie turned his head up towards Richie.  
He chuckled slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're this great, beautiful, caring person. I'm, well...not."

"I'm going to stop you there. You know why I like you, Richie?" Eddie paused. "Shit, because you're kind, and you're loyal, and you're funny, and frankly, you are the only attractive boy in our school so I don't have many options to begin with."

Richie play punched Eddie in the arm and he yelped.

"Okay, seriously, though." He sat up to face Richie. "You are one of the best people I know. You sell yourself off as this wise-cracking asshole who is coasting through life, giving zero fucks, but I know who you truly are. You care about your friends, hell, you care about everyone. Sometimes it's painful to watch you care so much. But you're protective like that, and in a good way. It's one of your best qualities."

"Really?" Richie asked.

"Yes. And you're really nice to me even though you make stupid jokes, you've got a cute face, and you are funny...sometimes." Eddie lay back down, resting his head on his lover's chest. "There, is your ego sufficiently stroked now?"

Richie let out a hearty chuckle. He had to or he'd have started crying.

That was the night Richie knew he had something special. Really special.

So, when he was staring into the eyes of that same boy six months later, the words just tumbled out - like an ancient prophesy destined to be told.

"I love you, Eddie."

Eddie's eyes wavered a bit before he slowly smiled, his face lighting up in every way imaginable.

"I love you, too."

Richie brought his fingers to the boy's freckled cheek and pressed his lips against Eddie's.

They were sweet like candy hearts.

Eddie smiled into it, breaking just to whisper, " _You don't know how long I've been waiting to say that._ "

Richie nibbled his ear lobe. "Oh, you fuckin' minx."

Eddie bubbled into laughter before taking Richie's face in both of his hands to bring him into a searing kiss.

• • •

"A bit to the left, Rich," a middle-aged and willful Eddie Tozier instructed as his husband hung their wide array of pictures.

They were on their wedding portrait now, and it had to be perfect.

Richie nudged the frame an inch to the left, which elicited a sigh from Eddie.

"No, not that much left. Bring it over a few centimeters."

Richie rolled his eyes from on top of the 3-foot ladder. "It looks fine. I don't think-"

"Shh! Move it over."

Richie complied, shoving the frame ever so slightly until Eddie gave him a reassuring smile.

"Perfect," Eddie stated. "It's right in the center of the wall. And it's equidistant from the others."

Richie stepped down from the ladder and scratched his ever-so-slightly receding hairline. "I don't know why you don't just do it yourself if you're gonna be so anal about it."

"I am not anal! And besides, I have to stand back and determine if it's straight or not."

"Eds, I hate to break it to you," Richie started, looking towards their large portrait. "But nothing about that photo is straight."

"Oh, shut up, Richie."

He looked Eddie up and down. "You know you like it." 

"No, I don't, actually." 

Richie snuck up from behind and wrapped his arms around Eddie's hips, resting his head on his husband's shoulder.

"But I guess it makes sense you make me do all the bitch work. You have an eye for this sort of thing, anyway."

"I guess it pays to be a perfectionist."

"An anal perfectionist."

Eddie huffed. "I am not anal. And stop using that word."

"Why?" Richie mused, ghosting his lips over the back of Eddie's neck. He let out a soft chuckle. "Oh, you have a dirty mind, Mr. Tozier."

A chill went down Eddie's spine and his chest enflamed. "N-no, it's just-"

"Alright," Richie said, pulling away from him and walking towards their photos, all hanging on a long stretch of brick along the dining room wall. "I get it. I'll just talk like you."

Richie put on a low voice that in no way resembled Eddie's as he brought his hand to his chin. "How superfluous of Janet to ask about the weather when I instructed her so adamantly to drop the subject."

"I do not talk like that." Eddie stood with his arms folded.

Richie continued. "At work you do! Depreciating assets. Mitigated probability. _Data analytics._ Oh, shit, that one had 'anal' in it..."

Richie danced over to Eddie, his eyes ablaze with mischief.

"Oh my God," Eddie groaned as he let Richie wrap his arms around him again. "You're such an asshole." 

"I know."

Eddie leaned his head back onto Richie's large chest as they both admired their wedding portrait.

They both remembered that day like it was yesterday.

Eddie had never been so nervous in his life. He feared his hands would never stop sweating.

And then, he walked down the aisle and saw the most beautiful man he had ever laid eyes on. His fiancé. And in only a few minutes, his _husband._

Richie had the same dopey grin on as when Eddie first told him he liked him all those years ago.

And when they both got older, and Eddie went off to school in New York, and Richie begged for him to stay with tears in his eyes, those feeling never changed.

Even when they drifted apart, and began not to think of each other as much, the feeling were there, laying dormant for 25 years before they found each other again. 

They hadn't looked back since.

Richie and Eddie looked at themselves, only a year older now, content with the life they made together.

Richie sighed. "I love you, Eddie."

Eddie smiled. "I love you, too, Chee."

Eddie turned around to kiss Richie's cheek, and then his lips. 

"I can show you much I do, Eds," Richie mumbled into his hair. "Believe me."

Eddie looked up at him. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to say that."

Richie smirked and grabbed Eddie's hand.

"All fuckin' afternoon!" Eddie chirped as he followed his husband down the hall.

Richie laughed as they went, Eddie telling him off for not catching his 'signs' until he sank him into another kiss, reaching on his tip toes to be at eye-level with his husband.

That was always his favorite part.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! kudos are much appreciated xx
> 
> Btw, the "dirty mind" line was inspired by Studpuffin's amazing fic "Boarding School Blues pt 2"!


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